Finding Family-Safe
Alternatives

A survey of low risk lawn care product availability.

Summary: Recommended Stores
and Useful Products

This survey was completed in spring of 2000. This is a follow-up
to previous surveys conducted in 1996 and 1998, by the Pesticide
Alternatives Project, a coalition of community, environmental,
conservation, and breast health groups -- coordinated by the Neighborhood
Network -- dedicated to reducing the human health risks from exposure
to toxins by encouraging a wider selection of alternatives to pesticides
and making the public aware of where to purchase them.

Volunteers
Wanted

The Neighborhood
Network is again conducting our survey of Long Island lawn
and garden stores, to provide Long Islanders with information
on the best places to find products for safer, organic lawn
and garden care. Would you like to contribute to
the effort?

It only takes
about 20 minutes to complete each survey form. If you would
like to help by surveying your favorite source for organic
lawn care and gardeing supplies, or other stores in your
area, please contact us at: organics@neighborhood-network.org

Background

Devotion
to the suburban lawn is a strong tradition here on Long Island.
It represents the American dream of each homeowner's small piece
of the planet; open green space that many city-dwellers long for.
Unfortunately, the chemical industry plays on that desire with an
unrelenting barrage of advertisements which insist that ever homeowner
has a responsibility to purchase and use chemical pesticides in
order to meet the standard of an emerald green carpet of flawless
turf.
Long Island's lawn care supply stores promote the use of and sell
thousands of pounds of chemical pesticides annually. (The total
quantities are unknown, because the information is not tracked.)
Most of these products are highly toxic; some are known or suspected
carcinogens and/or neurotoxins. The objective of the Pesticide
Alternatives Project is to counteract those enormous advertising
budgets and get the word out to the public that there are effective
alternatives to chemical pesticides. Additionally, it is our goal
to increase the availability of non-chemical lawn care products
while educating the public about where these products can be found.
When people make statements like: "I don't want to use chemical
pesticides around my house because of the environmental concerns
and because of the health hazards. But what alternatives are there,
and where can I find them?" this project's objective is to
provide concrete answers to these questions.
The Pesticide Alternatives Project's long term goal is to reduce
toxic pesticide exposures and environmental contamination from the
use of such chemicals by educating the public about alternative
pest control methods, their proper use, and the locations where
they are available. Safer pest control methods exist and are gaining
increased acceptance around the Country.
The survey was completed in response to growing concerns about the
environmental and health risks of chemical pesticide use, and the
increasing number of requests from members and the public for information
on non-toxic pest control.

Organic
Practices Defined

The
term "organic" is currently in the process of being
defined for food products by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
though it has not been officially applied to horticulture or lawn
and tree care. It is clear that "organic" is meant to
exclude the use of synthetic chemicals, both in common usage and
also in terms of this report. Organic lawn care practices re-create,
as closely as possible, the natural processes that occur in a
healthy ecosystem; nourishing the soil and plants, while preserving
populations of beneficial microorganisms, predatory insects, and
spiders which control potential pest infestations. This management
approach replaces the search for a chemical "magic bullet"
to attempt to eradicate a pest. Under
an organic lawn care program, the presence of pests in large enough
numbers to cause damage or a nuisance is recognized as a symptom
of an underlying problem or imbalance in the ecosystem which must
be corrected. The techniques and materials used present very low
risks or no risks at all to human health and the environment.
They include changes in growing habits (proper watering, mowing,
and fertilization; and the selection of grass seed and ornamental
plants that are disease and drought resistant and appropriate
for this part of the country); use of mechanical pest controls
(weeding by hand, scraping egg sacks from trees); physical pest
controls (barriers and traps); biological controls (natural predators,
parasites and pathogens); and, to combat severe pest infestations,
use of treatments that control pest populations by methods other
than poisoning (such as diatomaceous earth, which desiccates pests,
or horticultural oil, which suffocates insects). Obviously,
changing to organic lawn care practices often requires the application
of products which are not used in chemically dependent lawn and
garden care. All of these organic products are widely available
through mail order catalogs. However, these catalogs may prove
inconvenient when bulky products are sought.

Findings

A total
of 119 different stores were surveyed; 128 surveys were completed
because some stores were surveyed twice for quality control purposes.
Stores were assigned scores according to the number of products
offered for sale as a percentage of the total of 33 listed on the
survey. If a store stocked 33 products that they offered for sale
to their customers (such as Hicks, in Westbury), their score would
be a 100%; if they offered 30 products (such as Abby's Parkside,
in Wantagh) their score would be 91%, and so on. The overall average
number of products carried by all stores surveyed was only 12.2,
or 37%. Although this finding is disappointing, it represents a
marginal improvement over the average total number of products found
in stores in 1998, which was 8.3.
Hicks Nursery in Westbury was the only store surveyed which carried
all 33 products. Of the three surveys conducted since 1996, this
is the first store to score a 100%. One store, Marder's in Bridgehampton,
carried only alternative, organic products, selling no synthetic
chemical pesticides. This is also a first for Long Island. In order
to be listed as a "Recommended Store" a store must
offer 16 or more organic lawn products, or score approximately 50%
of the total list of 33 products surveyed. In total, 36 of the stores
surveyed (30%) scored high enough to be recommended.

Hornet
& Wasp traps -
A multitude of pests can be lured and trapped. Traps are used
to monitor and in some cases limit pest populations.

Biological
Controls

Beneficial
nematodes - Microscopic unsegmented worms, that are harmless to
plants but prey on pest insects.

Bt
for caterpillars

Bt for mosquitoes
[such as Mosquito Dunks] - Bacteria that attack the digestive
systems of certain types of pest insects, but are harmless to
mammals and beneficial insects.

Earth
worms - Called the gardener's best ally and "nature's plow,"
earthworms aerate and soften soil. They help to break down thatch.
Their waste, or castings provide nutrients that would be otherwise
unavailable to plants.

Milky
spore - A bacteria which is virulent to Japanese beetle grubs
and and several other grubs, but is harmless to other organisms.
It may take a season or two before you see a noticeable impact.

Alternative
Pest Control Treatments

Citrus
insect killer (Limonene) - An extract of citrus peels which is
effective against a number of insect pests, with very low toxicity
to mammals.

Corn
gluten - A corn protein applied to lawns in early spring to inhibit
weed germination. It also provides nitrogen.

Diatomaceous
earth - Microscopic fossilized shells of algae with sharp edges
that pierce the insect bodies causing them to dehydrate. Apply
to lawns; paths used by pets; dog runs to control fleas and ticks;
and used around flower beds to discourage slugs and snails.

Dried
blood - Provides nitrogen for plants and also repels deer.

Garlic
oil insect repellent [such as Garlic Barrier] - Repels a wide
variety of pests from your lawn and garden, including mosquitoes,
fleas, and ticks. (Approved by the EPA in 1999)